Gender Specialist 21 views

1. About the Program

The Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Hybrid Designs and its consortium partners- Icog any one can code, R& D Group and Qua Qua Capitals as well as D & T Ethiopia Management Consulting PLC are launching a five- year program entitled ‘Entrepreneurship in the Digital and Gig Economy (EDGE)’ with the aim of unlocking over 300,000 dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged young people across Ethiopia through an innovative digitally enabled and mediated domestic outsourcing market and enabling a thriving offshore outsourcing ecosystem. This program will be scaling five outsourcing platform (digital) enabled products for both the offshore and onshore market that will empower young women and vulnerable groups. The program will also support 1,041 MSEs across Ethiopia to streamline their internal processes and organizational excellence to expand and grow their business, which will contribute to the development of a pipeline of competitive outsourcing enterprises that will serve and take advantage of the outsourcing market, both locally and globally. Through the ecosystem level collaboration with key strategic partners such as the IT park and the Ethiopian Outsourcing Association, the program anticipates contributing to the development of a strong outsourcing ecosystem, which will enable system level changes and position Ethiopia as an attractive outsourcing destination. The program will work to transform the outsourcing ecosystem to better serve the needs of financially disadvantaged young women and men. The program anticipates achieving its goals through its three interconnected program components which include i) Enhancing youth awareness in outsourcing and skill development; ii) Enterprise development and iii) Improving enabling environment through ecosystem Support. Through these interventions, the program will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, Ethiopia’s country roadmap and country success story by the end of the program period and beyond.

1. Job Profile

Job Title: Gender Specialist

Duty station: Addis Ababa with travel to the regions from time to time

Type of employment: Program (2025 – 2029)

Duration: One Year with possible extension up to five years

Reports to: Program Director

Required Number: One

Application Deadline: 30-01-2025

1. Short Description of the Position

The Gender and safe guarding specialist is responsible for leading gender and youth engagement activities within the program. The specialist will be required to provide support and advice on gender, youth engagement and related policies and procedures. She/ he will coordinate the program’s gender and youth engagement activities and be responsible for developing and delivering training and awareness-raising sessions.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the development of gender and youth strategy and action plans, especially to empower young women and ensure their participation and benefits in the EDGE program.
• Develop and lead gender and youth engagement initiatives.
• Develop and review gender and youth engagement policies that will be instrumental to realize the gender and youth targets of the program.
• Proactively works with other program team members of the program and partners to ensure safe and meaningful engagement of young women and men in the program.
• Coordinate and lead implementation of youth and gender analysis, as required, and develop action plans with targets to be included in the M&E framework of the program.
• Supervise and provide backstopping on implementation of the program interventions in a youth and gender-responsive manner.
• Coordinate and support the program team to ensure gender, disability and youth inclusion are consistently and thoughtfully mainstreamed to ensure achievement of the program goal.
• Solicit feedback from youth advisory groups to ensure that youth voice and agency is incorporated in ongoing programing.
• Contribute to design of gender and disability-inclusive M&E framework and tools for data collection on target indicators.
• Facilitate establishment of gender and disability inclusive youth advisory groups in the areas where EDGE is operating to gain insights from the youth perspective and amplify their voices.
• Provide technical supports to program staffs and ensure the team uses gender and disability lenses to implement their day-to-day activities.
• Ensure the gender inclusive interventions of the EDGE program are implemented in alignment with the program documents and the organization’s gender policy and guidelines.
• Support program partners and service providers to become gender, disability and youth responsive in their business practices, policies and actions.

IV. Competencies

Required Academic Qualifications and Experience

• MA in gender studies, sociology, psychology, social work or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Minimum of 8-10 years relevant experience in leading, designing and implementing gender and youth inclusive initiatives in the development sector.
• Proven experience in design, implementation, and evaluation of women and youth empowerment projects or programs.
• Demonstrated technical and analytical skills to produce quality reports, training modules implementation guidelines.
• Experience in community mobilization.
• Extensive experience of gender and youth engagement in development setting.
• Experience at providing advice, developing, and delivering on various young women targeting strategies.
• Experience of working with youth.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Competencies

• Knowledge and understanding of meaningful participation and engagement of female and young people.
• Proficiency in English and Amharic
• Expertise, technical knowledge, and substantial experience in responding to issues, breaches and investigation and case management.
• Experience in the development of communication strategies and material
• Strong communication and facilitation skills.
• Experience in carrying out gender related assessments and studies to inform program design and implementation.
• Knowledge of human rights, young people rights, inclusion and gender equality.
• Ability to change behaviors/attitudes in non-confrontational manner and with evidence.
• Training and facilitation skills.
• Proficient skill in excel and other MS computer applications
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies.
• Sensitivity to different aspects of diversity (cultural, religious) and firm belief in teamwork.